Source: Grimm, Jacob, and Wilhelm Grimm. Grimm’s Complete Fairy Tales. New York City: Fall River Press, 2012.
“The Handless Maiden,” or “Silverhands,” is a fairy tale that immediately starts off in tragedy. In the most common variation of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale (#31), a man makes a deal with a demon. In exchange for immense wealth, he gives his daughter to the devil. The child is exceptionally pure and has kept herself so innocent and good that the only way for the devil to obtain her is by telling the father to chop off her clean hands. She cries on them, and her tears purify her, causing the devil to give up in “getting the better of her.” (It’s unclear whether he wants her soul or her body, but it can be interpreted as both). The girl becomes despondent and begins to wander. During these wanderings, she comes across the garden of a king, and he sees her, falls in love and eventually marries her. He also makes her a pair of silver hands.
In due time, the girl, now a queen, gives birth to a son, this while the king is away. The devil, who still wants to somehow gain power over her, changes a letter from the king to say that the queen gave birth to a monster and that both she and her son should be executed, and her heart taken as proof. The servants despair at this order and kill a pig for its heart (“Snow White,” anyone?) while the queen flees into the forest with her son. Many years pass and the king, having discovered that the letters had been tampered with, continues to search for his missing wife. He eventually finds the queen and his son—and, she has regained her hands. She claims that they were given to her by God, and brings out the silver prosthetics to show that she is telling the truth in regards to her identity.
Overall, this fairy tale is distinguished by its uniqueness. In most fairy tales involving pretty girls, the greatest amount of harm inflicted on them is either a pinprick or a poisoned apple that still leaves the girl physically intact. Silverhands instead suffers a violent amputation at the beginning of the story. In his pursuit of money and power, her father disgustingly sacrifices her in a similar fashion to Iphigenia, who is offered to the goddess Artemis by her father Agamemnon. Iphigenia ensures his safe passage so that he can participate in the Trojan War. In the act of injuring Silverhands, the father’s victory is hollow and ultimately useless, and he even callously goes so far as to state that he will continue to take care of her just because he had “by means of thee received such great wealth.”
This is added insult to injury, considering his horrific betrayal of her and the fact that he clearly does not value her as a parent should. The cutting off of her hands and the subsequent blood marks the first section of her journey where she is robbed of her power as a woman, the power to nurture and create and do things. Thus, the story of Silverhands can actually be considered as another type of the woman’s quest, in which she sets off to find not only herself but also her ability.
The second part of the story talks about the replacement of her hands, thanks to the king. At the beginning of the fairy tale, he witnessed her eating pears in his garden to survive, and he fell in love with her and states that he will not forsake her. She is his Blanche Fleur. She has no choice but to rely on him because of her inability to do anything at the moment. Likewise, she sits in the castle and gives birth to his son while he is away at war; her presence at the moment is merely to inspire him and she is still not yet fleshed out as a character but rather she is an icon. He does seem dedicated to her, but the fact remains that she has yet to truly regain her hands and in a sense her own identity as a woman. The unsaid fact that he could also take them away if he wished to represents the control he has over her artificially recreated power (the silver hands), so this is most certainly not a final solution for our unlucky protagonist.
In the last part of the story, her hands have finally been restored by God. No longer will she carry the scars of her father and the silver hands of her husband. She has instead earned her power and capability back through her ability to endure and the need to be strong for herself and her son, as she becomes his guardian and protector. His birth signifies the end of her dependency and the need to be not only independent but also resilient as a mother who can do things for herself and her child.